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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Dmitri return home quickly after hunting?

2. What convinces Ivan Ilych that death is getting close?

3. How does Ivan Ilych handle his illness?

4. How does Marya say her marriage to Sergey affects her relationship with the world?

5. What does Marya say she got, in her marriage to Sergey?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Dmitri's departure from the Caucasus.

2. How has Marya's attitude about marriage changed by the end of the story?

3. What causes Marya's depression?

4. What happens in the first ambush Lukashka sets up?

5. How does Ivan Ilych change when he begins to make money?

6. What is the relationship between the Grebensk Cossacks and the Muslim Tartars?

7. What does Dmitri Olenin think he will find in the Caucasus?

8. What is Eugene Irtenev's relationship with Stepanida?

9. How does Tolstoy describe Eugene Irtenev's marriage with Liza Annenskaya?

10. What happens to end the truce between Ivan Ilych and Praskovya Federovna?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the essential "Russianness" in Tolstoy's stories? Describe it in three of his short stories. Does Tolstoy show it by contrast with other cultures, or by description, or some other means?

Essay Topic 2

Based on evidence from three stories of your choice, describe Tolstoy's view of religion and spirituality. What kind of God does Tolstoy invoke in his stories? What religion informs this divinity?

Essay Topic 3

What is Tolstoy's relation with his characters and the events he describes? Is he a sympathetic narrator, or does he distance himself from his characters' thoughts and actions?

(see the answer keys)

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